May 24, 2013

Allen Ginsberg photos at Contemporary Jewish Museum

click photo for full-size imagephoto by Donald Kinney

A few years ago architect Daniel Libeskind carefully repurposed a power substation originally built in 1881 to serve as a new Contemporary Jewish Museum. Libeskind pushed for a bit of whimsy, perhaps to present a stark contrast between old and new. The resulting madness is a monumental cube made with hundreds of riveted steel panels, unpainted and glistening in the sun, balanced precariously askew on the west corner of the building.

click photo for full-size imagephoto by Donald Kinney

And of course, this odd design has become a Mecca for photographers. Safe to say that no two photogs ever shoot or process it in exactly the same way.

On Wednesday my friend Nancy Ewart who reviews and writes about art for Examiner.com snuck me into a press-preview for the Allen Ginsberg "Beat Memories" exhibit. Without doubt, Ginsberg was a much better poet (Howl, Kaddish, Reality Sandwiches, Death and Fame, Planet News, Cosmopolitan Greetings, etcetera) than he was a photographer--however, these images are rare glimpses into his life with his contemporaries (Cassidy, Burroughs, Robert Frank, Jack Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Corso, Donlon, among others).